We have a Conference USA contest as our focus when the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders travel to Virginia for a contest with the Marshall Thundering Herd. Middle Tennessee is currently five games behind C-USA leader Old Dominion and Marshall is just four games away from the top spot in C-USA. This should be a competitive game between two sides in the bottom half in the conference.

Middle Tennessee Having Difficult Season

With a record of eight wins and 18 losses, Middle Tennessee is having a difficult season. They have nine upperclassmen on their roster, they didn’t have any serious injury issues and they weren’t rebuilding. They are just a bad NCAA Division 1 basketball team. The Blue Raiders likely won’t get an invitation to any postseason tournaments so the regular season plus the C-USA bonus round is about as good as it’s going to get for Middle Tennessee.

This is the first meeting between the two sides this season. Middle Tennesee has a road record of one win and nine losses and are on a two-game losing streak.

Junior guard Antonio Green is the Blue Raiders leading scorer, averaging 17.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists. Green has met or exceeded his scoring average in three of his last five games.

Middle Tennessee State scores an average of 66.4 points, grabs 9.7 offensive rebounds, 28 defensive rebounds and 10.8 assists per game this season.

Marshall Rebuild Going Great

Marshall is having success on the rebuild, posting a record of 13 wins and 13 losses this season. That’s impressive for a squad that returned just five upperclassmen this season. Marshall is four games behind the C-USA top spot and if their season were to end today, the Thundering Herd would likely not receive an invitation to any of the sanctioned NCAA Tournaments. I think that’s okay with them, as they have a very bright future ahead of them with this squad.

This is the first time these two schools have met this season. Marshall has a home record of nine wins and three losses and are hoping to end a four-game losing skid.

Senior guard Jon Elmore leads Marshall in scoring, averaging 19.6 points per game, 4.3 rebounds, a team leading five assists and is knocking down 2.7 triples per game. Elmore has exceeded his scoring average in three of the past five games.

Marshall scores an average of 79.2 points, grabs eight offensive rebounds, 24.7 defensive rebounds and 14.1 assistsper game this season.

Notable Trends

Home team is 9-2 ATS in the last 11 meetings.

Under is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.

The Bottom Line What to bet on this game.

Full-Game Side Bet

Rating:

This could be one of the last home games in the exceptional career of Jon ” Jonny Buckets” Elmore’s career, and I expect him to go off against Middle Tennessee State on Saturday. The Blue Raiders are 1-9 on the road and just not a very good basketball team away from home. I really like Marshall in this game on Saturday.

Prediction: Marshall

Full-Game Total Pick

Rating:

Jon Elmore vs Antonio Green should be fun to watch, but I don’t like much of what I’ve seen on the road from the Blue Raiders this season. Middle Tennessee State has one of the worst offenses in college basketball that is even worse on the road. They do however like to play defense a bit.

When I added everything together, I came up with 143 points and I think that might be a bit too high. I will play the under at 143 and above on Saturday.

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